Klassik Heute

Review Guido Krawinkel for Klassik Heute

AI translation with ChatGPT from German

Artistic impression: 10/10
Sound quality: 10/10
Overall: 10/10

Darkness and light are inseparably intertwined. “Where there is much light, there is also deep shadow,” Goethe has his Götz von Berlichingen declare – though the author is more often quoted for a far less philosophical line. Goethe, who also devised a theory of color that makes little sense without light, was undoubtedly right. Yet this quotation does not truly apply to Angela Metzger’s recording. Aptly titled Counterlight, the album shines above all through one thing: light. Shadows are virtually absent here. At most, one might count the extremely generous acoustics of Trier’s Constantine Basilica – where the CD was recorded – as a kind of shadow, since the space presents a genuine challenge for any recording. The sheer scale of the building and the resulting reverberation are immense. Still, this has been captured convincingly: the space and its acoustics are integral to any organ, after all. Some passages sound a little more indirect than one might be used to, but overall the balance between acoustics and instrument is well judged. And this is far from the album’s only strength.

Carefully Crafted Program Architecture

Angela Metzger has assembled a program that is both coherent and compelling, organized with strict symmetry. Framed by Max Reger’s Dankpsalm and his chorale fantasia Wie schön leucht’ uns der Morgenstern, the program includes chorale preludes by Philipp Maintz and two movements from Louis Vierne’s Pièces de Fantaisie (Hymne au soleil and Feux follets), with Herbert Howells’s centrally placed Psalm Prelude on Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Program dramaturgy – often neglected in both recordings and concerts – is crystal clear here, and Metzger’s brilliant interpretations elevate it even further. The Munich-based organist, who teaches organ at the University of Church Music in Bayreuth, has in recent years built a reputation as an interpreter particularly devoted to contemporary music and to thoughtfully constructed programs. That reputation precedes her – and with this recording, she confirms it in full.

Subtle and Meticulously Devised

Metzger employs the resources of the large Eule organ in the Constantine Basilica with remarkable foresight. In Reger, for example, she exploits its dynamic range to the fullest extremes. The way the profound, grounding 32’ stop gently yet powerfully underpins the triple forte at the end of the Dankpsalm is nothing short of magnificent. The organ’s three lowest registers are truly a delight for 32’ aficionados, offering everything from the most delicate pianissimo to an overwhelming tutti for every conceivable organist’s state of mind. Philipp Maintz’s chorale preludes captivate with their refined sonorities, which Metzger renders with equal subtlety and care. These are precisely the pieces one wants to hear more than once.

For French and English Romantic repertoire in the vein of Vierne and Howells, this organ provides an almost inexhaustible palette of colors, which the organist commands with complete assurance. Moreover, her interpretations radiate a deep inner calm: tempi are spot on, timing is impeccable, and everything is attuned to the synthesis of space, instrument, and work. This is a musician who does not put virtuosity on display for its own sake, but places it entirely at the service of the music. The result convinces from the very first bar to the last.

 

Guido Krawinkel

 

Klassik Heute, January 24, 2026